The 13th Biennial Marina Garden Show will be held on May 3, 2026 in Marina,California from 10 am to 3 pm at various locations.
This is a sweet outing for young families.
Details about this event follow:
Happy Garden Strolling!
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Bottlebrush Flowering Plants Blowing in the Breeze at Pebble Beach, California by Ruth Paget
On a recent run to the Market at Pebble Beach, California for an organic Peerless latte coffee, I saw an aptly named bottlebrush red flowering plant by the side of the store.
I did not know the flower’s name at first, so I downloaded the Google app that has a camera feature that allows you to photograph and identify an object as well as tap into a small encyclopedia’s worth of description.
I saw from the Google camera app that the red flower I was admiring was a bottlebrush flowering plant with origins in Australia. The Google app further explained that bottlebrush flowers attract bees, butterflies, and humming birds – all three of these species have an oversize ecological and economic value relative to their diminutive size.
Changes to the ecosystem in California have endangered those three species, but plantings like the bottlebrush plant at Pebble Beach is one way in which a community of gardeners can attract the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds for generations to come.
The economic value of bees, monarch butterflies, and hummingbirds is extremely important in a region like Monterey County that has important investments in agriculture. Bees, monarch butterflies, and hummingbirds all pollinate field crops.
Hummingbirds also pollinate flowers, both wild flowers and ornamental flowers, that can be used in floral sales in addition to making the region look beautiful for locals and tourists alike.
Bees make honey, which can be great for generating sales. Honey is an antioxidant with darker honeys having more antioxidants. Antioxidants remove free radicals from the body, which may cause cancer. Bees can contribute to health through honey and wealth as long as you do not get stung around them or eat too much honey.
Finally, monarch butterflies contribute to the tourism industry on the Monterey Peninsula as they migrate through this region from October to March on their way to Latin America.
There is a Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Pacific Grove that has docent tour guides who explain the differences between male and female monarch butterflies and the butterfly life cycle for example. There are so many monarch butterflies in Pacific Grove that it has been called Butterfly Town.
The bottlebrush flowering plant at the Pebble Beach Market contributes to the ecosystem attracting bees, monarch butterflies, and hummingbirds to the Monterey and Salinas region. It is a plant that could be part of butterfly gardens around the region.
A photo of a bottlebrush flowering plant in an online ad follows:
Note: I have posted a link to the Google app with photo id for information below.
Happy Garden Strolling!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Too Good To Go Food Waste Reduction App Information reposted by Ruth Paget
I read about the Food Waste Reduction app called Too Good to Go in this week’s Monterey County Weekly.
Too Good to Go is set up like delivery apps with food providers listing information on daily specials about food that they will get rid of in a few days, if it is not purchased on Too good to Go.
The app lists available food for sale at different vendors and even has a push feature available to alert you when your favorite places have food on sale.
More information about Too Good to Go is available at their website below:
The link to the Monterey County Weekly article about food waste reduction and the role apps are playing as part of this new industry follows:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The Fish and Rice Food of Shanghai, China by Ruth Paget
Fuchsia Dunlop is known more as the popularize of the fiery hot food of Sichuan, China, which she wrote about in her cookbooks Land of Plenty and the Food of Sichuan.
She has written an equally great cookbook entitled Land of Fish and Rice about the mild food of Shanghai and “Jiangnan” region south of the Yangtze River in China.
I have visited two cities in this region when I went to China on a study tour in 1979 – Nanjing and Beijing. I discovered a Chinese dish on a commune outside Shanghai that I really liked, ma’po dofu, made with braised pork and firm bean curd sprinkled with chopped green onions. I thoughe the bean curd, tofu, would never catch on in the US despite my liking this dish.
That is a very positive memory I have of China. I looked through Land of Fish and Rice for recipes that could create a positive experience about Chinese food for a young family and put together a two-course meal that uses ingredients that are easily obtainable in the US.
The recipes I like for a Shanghai lunch or dinner follow:
*Stir-fried Cockles with Chinese Chives
Cockles are small clams. Chives are mild flavored, think onions that can chop with scissors.
In this dish, you stir-fry the chives first in oil until their fragrance rises. Then, you add in shelled and cooked cockle meat till steam rises. When everything is piping hot, add 2 tablespoons stock and bring to a boil before seasoning with salt.
*Shanghai Fried Rice with Salt Pork and Green Bok Choy
You can eat this side dish alone because it has so many good ingredients in it. To make this dish, you stir-fry rehydrated mushrooms, salt pork or pancetta, bok choy (Chinese cabbage), with onions and ginger.
When everything is piping hot, you add sesame oil as a seasoning just before serving. As you can see from these dishes, you do not use garlic. Fuchsia Dunlop notes that garlic is too strongly flavored for most of the dishes in Shanghai and its surrounding area. The cooks of Shanghai prefer ginger and green onions as their seasoning base Dunlop writes.
Fuchsia Dunlop’s cookbook Land of Fish and Rice contains much cultural information that young families can use to make a multicultural meal experience that could include:
-shopping for ingredients at the supermarket and/or the Marina Farmer’s Market (Sundays 10 am to 2 pm), which has some Asian ingredients on sale
-Preparing ingredients ahead of time to cook -practicing using chopsticks
–look up youtube videos for instructions -maybe do a video of dinner dishes and chopstick use for a tiktok or youtube video
Happy Cooking!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The University of Chicago’s Court Theatre is hosting a lecture on university and theatre collaborations grounded in academic research and development of talent featuring Peter Sellars from the Opera & Theatre Department of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Chicago’s Court Theatre’s Artistic Director Marilyn F. Vitale on Thursday, April 16, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois.
Details about registering for this free lecture for in-person attendance in Chicago or via zoom follow:
https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/465/#cv/priority/%5Esmartlabel_personal/19d78b61d01db793
Note: There is a direct United flight now between Monterey, California and Chicago, Illinois.
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopstivks and Marrying France
The Czech We’re Still at War graphic novel published by the University of Chicago Press and Post Bellum was created for generations that did not grow up under the rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe.
Information and purchasing details about the book follow:
https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/465/#cv/priority/%5Esmartlabel_promo/19d7762507931bb0
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky recounts the daily terror of living in small town France when Adolf Hitler was expanding his control of Europe.
The book costs $8.99 on Kindle today.
Posted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games